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PHILIP S. KLEBANOFF
1918-1992
WRITTEN BY G. E. MATTINGLYAND L. P. PURTELL
SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
PHILIP S. ~EB~OFF, a prominent researcher in turbulence,
diecI on May 2, 1992, at the age of seventy-three.
Phil was born July 21, 191S, in New York City. He graduated
from Brooklyn College, where he studied physics, then joined
the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., in 1942.
His early years there were spent participating in the develop-
ment of rapidly advancing experimental techniques in aero-
clynamics under the direction and leadership of Galen B.
Schubauer. He also pursued advanced studies at George Wash-
ington University from 1942 to 1945.
His early projects were pursued in a time of great ferment in
experimental turbulence research. In particular, the hot-wire
anemometer had been established as a powerful instrument and
Phi] ant! his colleagues took full advantage of it to study both
transitional and fully turbulent flows. One of the most frequently
referenced works in this field is Phil's extensive study of turbu-
lence characteristics in the boundary layer, published as a Na-
tional Advisory Committee for Aeronautics technical note in
1954. His turbulent boundarylayer data are still used to establish
validity of current experiments en cl full numerical simulations
in the boundary layer.
Building on his training with Schubauer on the problem of
boundary-layer transition from laminar to turbulent flows, Phi]
later studied the development of waves in the laminar region, far
115

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116
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
beyond the linear range explored previously. Using the vibrating
ribbon technique, he established experimentally the compli-
cated three-dimensional nature of boundary-layer instability.
The resulting 1962 publication in the journal of Fluid Mechanics
ranks as a stellar classic in the field of boundary-layer transition,
and the three-dimensional waves discovered by him are now
commonly referred to as Klebanoff modes.
During the early 1960s, Phil began what was to be a long and
fruitful collaboration with Francois Frankiel, a theoretician who
cofounded the American Physical Society (APS) Division of
Fluid Dynamics, and later became editor of the journal Physics of
Fluids. Together they explored the fundamental statistical de-
scription of turbulence, particularly the smaller scales at high
Reynolds number. They were among the first to make extensive
use of the new power of digitized experimental data, employing
it to examine the nature of the probability distribution of small-
scale turbulence.
In 1979 Phil was invited to visit Hokkaido University, Sapporo,
Japan, to lecture, to write a summary paper on transition and
turbulence, and thus to receive an earned doctorate in engineer-
ing. Phil was honored by election to the National Academy of
Engineering and byfellowship in the American Physical Society,
the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the
Washington Academy of Sciences.
Throughout his career, Phil received numerous awards for his
contributions to the study of turbulence. Among these were the
Naval Ordnance Development Award received in 1945. In 1968
he received the National Bureau of Standards Certificate of
Commendation and in 1975 the Department of Commerce
Gold Medal for "his outstanding contributions to the field of
fluid mechanics . . . opening up new fields of research in
aerospace sciences, air pollution, meteorology, and rocket pro-
pulsion . . . and leading to important applications in coastal and
ocean engineering, oil spill travel, submarine waves, liquid and
gases in pipes, high speed atmospheric re-entry, nuclear power,
and energy conversion." In 1981 he received the APS Prize in
Fluid Dynamics "for his careful experimental studies of the
turbulent boundary layer, his fundamental contributions to the

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PHILIP S. KLEBANOFF
117
understanding of transition to turbulence in boundary layers,
and his leadership in the study of turbulence."
There were no aspects of turbulence that were not of interest
to Phil. In collaboration with his colleagues at the National
Bureau of Standards, he contributed to studies of boundary-
layer separation en cl the influence of roughness on transition,
and with his younger colleagues, magnetohydrodynamics, low
Reynolds number effects, and anemometry instrumentation.
His last paper, an extensive examination of the development and
evolution of boundary-layer turbulence inducecl by a roughness
element, was published in the fournal of Fluid Mechanics just
before his death. This paper, like its predecessors, exemplifies
the care, thoroughness, and integrity Phil always practiced en cl
also inspired in those who worked with him. He will be missed.